Biddy Mason and Paul R. Williams
Paul R. Williams with client Frank Sinatra and his interior designer daughter
Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson
[UPDATED] Pasadena Heritage is hosting an online presentation Monday that delves into the history of a half-dozen Black pioneers of the Pasadena and Los Angeles areas over the past 200 years.
“200 Years of Black Pioneers in Pasadena and Los Angeles” will take place online from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., organizers said.
It will be hosted by David Nufer, who serves as a docent and program developer for Pasadena Heritage, as well as the Los Angeles Conservancy. It’s part of a 10-day series of online events hosted by Pasadena Heritage Friday through Nov. 15 called Preservation Pasadena.
“The presentation is really dealing with figures that were important in the L.A. Basin, a number of whom are important in Pasadena,” Nufer said. “Most notably: the Robinson brothers, Jackie and Mack, who went to school here at Muir High School, and then also Pasadena City College, before Jackie went on to UCLA and Mack Oregon.”
Other subjects of the presentation include Paul R. Williams, “who was the first accredited African-American architect West of the Mississippi, and was responsible for over 3,000 structures in Southern California, including some that start to define L.A. style, such as the Beverly Hills Hotel, Saks Fifth Avenue,” Nufer said. “He was a big architect of the stars, most notably, Frank Sinatra.”
Going back farther into history, Nufer plans to discuss the Pobladores, “over half of whom had some African blood,” who originally settled the Pueblo of Los Angeles in 1781, Pasadena Heritage said in a written statement.
The last Mexican governor of California, Pio Pico, will also be a topic, along with Biddy Mason, “a midwife who, in 20 years, went from newly freed slave to one of the largest commercial landowners in Los Angeles,” the statement said.
“[Mason] came as a slave, earned her freedom in the courts in California, and essentially settled the issue so that people who would come to California in slavery were free, as well, in law.”
With such a wealth of local history, the hardest part is condensing it all into a presentation, Nufer said.
“The challenge was to figure out how to do the 200 years in an hour or 70 minutes. And that’s how we ended up with these half-dozen individuals,” he said.
“It’s focusing on these individuals, the challenges they face, some of which were due to race, and then how they successfully dealt with them. And in doing that, hopefully, we’re highlighting some of the big issues and achievements in Black history in Pasadena and L.A.,” Nufer said. “And we’re trying to put this within the context of American history.”
Online access to Pasadena Heritage’s Preservation Pasadena event costs $12 for members and $15 for nonmembers, organizers said. The ticket prices are for each individual event. There are 15 in all. There is a full-package ticket price for all 15 events but that is a separate price..
More information about Nufer’s presentation and Preservation Pasadena, as well as a link to purchase admission, is available at pasadenaheritage.org/
